Psychopannychia and the Person in Psychotherapy

The term Psychopannychia triggers our imaginations. We might think of some type of psychiatric disorder, perhaps an anxiety related disorder. Psychopannychia (the soul active all night long) is actually the name of a published work. It was John Calvin’s first written work in which he intended to speak as a theologian (Tavard, 2000, p. 4). He was addressing a 16^th century controversy regarding the soul falling asleep at death and waking up at the final resurrection.  Calvin “…considered it his duty to take up the pen in defense of the true doctrine, namely that the soul neither sleeps nor dies at bodily death, but remains fully alive as it is taken up in the Lord” (Tavard, 2000, p. 1). The term “soul” is actually referring to the person remaining fully alive at bodily death. Could this discussion of the issue be relevant to clarifying how we should regard persons in this life, as we work with them in psychotherapy?